If you can read parts of a book online, you can most likely find it for free.
Lets say you wanted to read one of my favorites, “Code Complete” 2nd edition by Steven C. McConnell:
- Find the book on Amazon
- Click to look inside and read the first pages
- Navigate to a random page that has text contents, like p24 for example
- Take a random phrase and write it down with quotes on each side. For ex “although this chapter lays the groundwork for successful software construction”
- Googleit using quotes alongside the
filetype:pdfsuffix - Click “repeat the search with the omitted results included”
- You should see a few links to fully scanned paperback versions
I’m more of a paper book person, but this always comes in handy.